Perhaps the best morning ever since Le Grand Bang.
But
: two friends are on Phi Phi Island now and there has been a tsunami warning. They’re meant to chill in hammocks all day long, not run up in the mountains. Be safe!
To the potential tsunami: stay the f*** away!
Distance: 123 km
Time: 5:33
Terrain: Flat
Roads: Good, mostly a shoulder to ride on.
Scenery: Not very exciting. A few bridges were the highlights.
Even though I left my friends house in Sarasota close to 10 o’clock I made 123 km without a big effort. The positive mindset I have now is pushing me along, it truly feels great.
My friend Byron likes making fun of me and my never ending punctured tires. Well, I got one today as well.
The funny thing is that I got it EXACTLY as I was passing a bicycle store. That meant I didn’t have to use my piece of s*** mini pump, but instead a proper floor pump. Karma. No other explanation.
Three hours later I met this awesome
60 years old man that had just ridden over 160 km on his whatever-that-type-of-bike-is-called. He had had three flats on his front wheel earlier and when I met him a 25 mm screw had found its way into his back tire. Since he had never changed a tubular tire before I helped him out. His pump didn’t work so I had to use my s*** pump anyway.
Karma works in mysterious ways. No point in trying to figure it out.
Only 240 km left to South Beach, Miami now. Have I deserved a cinnamon bun? I have, right? Good, because I bought a 4-pack today and there is no way in hell I’m leaving them to go bad till tomorrow.
I’m so stoked. Only 240 km to ride. Two days. Nothing. It’s amazing. Just got to keep doing this for two more days. Two.
When I took this picture I was going to complain about buying mandarins that are impossible to peel, but then I realized I had crossed a continent (almost) on a bicycle. Time to suck it up?
It looked like cat food when I opened the can, but with spaghetti and eggs it turned out to be a success.
Something that is bad is that I’ve only ridden 50 km and it’s already 14:06. Bye bye 120 km.
Only 360 km to ride, I can hardly believe it. Unless anything goes wrong I plan on doing the ride in three days and yes, one night will be spent in the middle of aligator territory. Maybe, just maybe, I will get to use my hammock that I haven’t even unpacked yet.
I’ve started writing the equipment reviews so that people that plan on doing a similar trip to mine can find out what they need to bring along and what to leave at home. Click on ”Utrustning / Equipment” under the top banner and you will get to that page. More reviews are coming of course.
Distance: 141 km
Time: 6:36
Terrain: Flat
Roads: Good roads with a bike lane most of the day
Scenery: Highway 41 wasn’t exciting at all.
The last two days I’ve ridden 280 km and it’s been a real killer. My legs a fried, my back has seen better days and if anyone would offer me a million dollars to run a marathon now I couldn’t do it. I think I had to stop every 20 minutes in the last three hours. Even after a longer break my energy didn’t come back fully, it didn’t come back at all in fact.
Since I resumed riding after the halfway break in Fort Worth I’ve been riding 21 days out of 25. That might be a little too much. Rest is necessary I keep telling myself, but then I forget it a second later.
That’s history now, because I did make it to my friends in Sarasota. Their house mansion has everything anyone could ever need, but I decided I was keeping the tradition alive, and set up the tent in the backyard.
I’ll try to illustrate how my mood shifts during days like this one, where my body hurts and my energy is low. It’s quite fascinating. Charts of this phenomenon is coming up soon.
My journey to Miami continues in two days, right now chill out time awaits.
If you want the rainbow you have to put up with the rain.
My second bottle of sun screen was SPF 50 and still when I took my t-shirt off a patch of skin came off with it.
What do I have to do to keep my skin on my body, sit in a bunker all day long?
The left earpiece stopped working five days ago and the right just got stuck in the spokes.
No music from now on, back to talking to myself.
About 140 km in silence. I don’t really like it.
Distance: 142 km
Time: 6:18
Terrain: Flat, a little hilly towards the end
Roads: Perfect
Scenery: Highway 98 doesn’t offer much but trees.
Two minutes before my alarm rang I woke up by the sound of rain. Perfect excuse to sleep longer, I told myself and tried going back to sleep.
Nope. It turned out to be a five minute rain and then the sun started shining like never before. Up, up and away.
One hour passed. Two hours passed. Three hours passed. I stopped to make lunch and it turned out perfect. Four hours passed. I stopped for a salad at McD and to charge my batteries. I ended up talking to some girls for an hour and a half. When I started getting close to 100 km I started thinking about maybe going for 140 km, which would leave me with about 135 km to Sarasota for the next day.
Darkness fell. My headlamp ran out of battery. I stopped to check the map for a gas station to buy new ones. Nothing. No signal. I decided to camp right there, behind a bush. For some reason I gave the map a second chance. Boom. A restaurant 3 km down the road. I ordered Parmesan fried chicken with sun dried tomatoes and mashed potatoes. God damn. They brought me a crab soup as well. And a salad. And three rolls.
Best meal in a long time!
In the parking lot a guy asks me why I’m doing this ride and where I sleep. I tell him I sleep ”anywhere”. He turns out to be the owner and offers me to camp on his grounds and to use the swimming pool and the showers if I wanted. If? High mf five!
Great day. I’m tired. Need to sleep. Over n out.
Compare my lunch to my dinner. Sad, right?
Just passed this damn sign when I had completed 99,3 km. Another 20 km won’t kill me, I guess.
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